An investigation firm, Infofind Ltd, has pleaded guilty to obtaining and selling personal information after illegally ‘blagging’ the personal details of over 250 individuals from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Following a successful prosecution by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the firm and its Managing Director, Nick Munroe, were both convicted of 44 counts of
unlawfully obtaining and selling personal information at Kingston Magistrates’
Court and fined £3,200

the magistrate highlighted the “very serious” nature of the offences.

The firm was fined £100 per offence on four counts and its Managing Director was fined £700 per offence on four counts. No separate penalty was imposed on the remaining matters. In addition the defendants were ordered to pay a total of £5,000 towards prosecution costs.

The firm contacted the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to ‘blag’ the personal information of hundreds of DWP customers in an attempt to trace outstanding debtors on behalf of a finance organisation, On:Line Finance.

Infofind deliberately breached the Data Protection Act despite having a written agreement with On:Line Finance to comply with the Act.

On each occasion the ‘blaggers’ purported to be employees of the Department for Work and Pensions and deceived members of staff into disclosing personal information about individuals. It is an offence under Section 55 of the Data Protection Act to unlawfully obtain, disclose or sell personal information without the consent of the data controller.